The Right Stuff (film)

The Right Stuff is a 1983 film about the about the test pilots who were involved in high-speed aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base as well as those selected to be astronauts for Project Mercury.

Contents

[opening narration] There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, 750 miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it: The sound barrier. Then, they built a small plane, the X1, to try and break the sound barrier. And men came to the High Desert in California to ride it. They were called test pilots. And no one knew their names.

[about manned space flight] Anyone who goes up in that damn thing is gonna be spam in a can.

[closing narration] The Mercury program was over. Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffee, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule. But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American. Twenty-two complete orbits around the world, he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.

Air Force General: Well, anyway, somebody wanted it that way. And that's the way it is.

[Two recruiters argue on a U.S. Navy carrier about accepting Navy pilots for Project Mercury.]

Recruiter #1: [seasick] Are you sure the Navy's got good pilots?

Recruiter #2: [also seasick] They call them aviators in the Navy. They say they're better than pilots.

Recruiter #1: I guess you've heard about our project. We're going up against the Russians all the way. It's got the highest...

Recruiter #2: Priorities.

Recruitrer #1: It's a hazardous undertaking. In fact, it's extremely hazardous, if you get my meaning.

Recruiter #2: It's so hazardous, that, if, uh, you decide not to volunteer, it will not be held against you in any way.

Alan Shepard: Sounds dangerous.

Recruiter #1: It is.

Recruiter #2: Very dangerous.

Alan Shepard: Count me in.

Reporter 1#: Gentlemen, I'd like to know from each of you whether your wives and children had anything to say about this. Mr. Slayton?

Deke Slayton: Uh, mine thinks it's fine.

Reporter 2#: Thank you. Mr. Schirra?

Wally Schirra: Uh, they're all for it.

John Glenn: You know, I don't think any of us could really go on with something like this if we didn't have pretty good backing at home. Really. My wife's attitude toward this has been the same as it's been all along through my flying. If it's what I want to do, she's behind it, and by golly, my kids are too, a hundred percent!

[The seven Mercury astronauts are being shown their spacecraft.]

Gordon Cooper: Uh, where are you putting the window?

German Scientist #1: Window? There is no window.

Gus Grissom: No window? What about the hatch?

German Scientist #1: The hatch?

Gus Grissom: Yeah, the hatch. We need a hatch with explosive bolts that we can open ourselves.

German Scientist #1: I think there is something you do not understand. This is the final form of the capsule. No hatch.

Deke Slayton: What if the automatic controls went out?

German Scientist #1: Backups, checks, etcetera. This would not happen.

Deke Slayton: I said, what would happen if it did?

Scott Carpenter: The pilot would have to fly it back.

German Scientist #2: This is the way it is.

John Glenn: You know, I wonder how the press is going to feel about this.

German Scientist #2: The press? What does the press have to say about this?

Gordon Cooper: And, uh, the press over there, they want to see Buck Rogers.

Deke Slayton: And that's us. Buck Rogers.

John Glenn: You see, those fellas over there, they've been making us out as the seven finest, and bravest pilots in all America. And if a story were to come out in the press that we were not being allowed to fly as pilots...

Alan Shepard: We want a window.

German Scientist #2: Uh, there could maybe be in future capsules, be a window, right here.

Gus Grissom: No, that's where the hatch with explosive bolts goes.

German Scientist #1: The hatch with the explosive...? Yeah. There could be a hatch with explosive bolts on the capsule.

Alan Shepard: That is a spacecraft, sir. We do not refer to it as a "capsule". Spacecraft.

German Scientist #1: Yeah. The hatch with explosive bolts on the... spacecraft. There. And there will be pitch and yaw thrusters which will enable the astronaut occupant—

Deke Slayton: The pilot. "Astronaut occupant"?

German Scientist #1: Yeah, the astronaut... pilot to have some... To have... control of the re-entry procedures.

John Glenn: Thank you. we appreciate it. You wouldn't mind if we had the press over here take a few photos of us by our spacecraft now, would you?

[Alan Shepard is being prepared for his flight and has just been sealed inside the Mercury spacecraft.]